A Tibetan's letter to Kalon Tripa Lobsang Sangay

[Admin]

www.dorjeshugden.com's admin recently received this letter. It is addressed to the Tibetan Kalon Tripa but we believe it has been cc'd to us and other groups and we find it a very good perspective, please read it and feel free to comment. Thank you. Admin

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Kalon Tripa Lobsang Sangay
Kashag
Central Tibetan Administration
Dharamshala – 176215
H.P.,
India


September 10, 2011

Dear Katri,

First, Congratulations to you for becoming new Kalon Tripa. I wish you good luck and hope you can do a lot of good things for the Tibetan people. I pray His Holiness Dalai Lama bless you and all of us for success.

Many Tibetans living in exile in India and also all around the world have a lot of hopes with you. For so many years since we left Tibet, there is still so much difficulty for Tibetans. For example travel is so difficult. Nobody recognize or accept Tibetan travel papers like the way they respect other country. Nobody respect us because nobody respect where we are coming from. How come no one respect us? How come Tibetan government doesn’t work on infrastructure or methods to make us respected so people don’t put us down in every place we go. Why Tibetan government doesn’t do more things on a world level to bring up reputation.

Now in modern world, there is no really famous Tibetan. Apart from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, no Tibetan has become world famous for anything like science, writing, music, art, business, medicine etc. Why? Why Tibetan have nobody famous except religious people. For last 50 years, Tibetan government in Dharmasala focus too much on religion issue, lamas, practice, protectors and sects. This focus on religion does not help us to get our country back, also does not help Tibetan cause in the world. You must stop talking so much religion things. Actually, whatever religion, practice, lama, sect, Buddha or protector that Tibetans choose, the government must give freedom. Government must not interfere in this kind of private things. Tibetan government should never talk about religion like all other government in the world don’t talk about religion and have focus on religion all the time.

The Tibetan government never provide any good opportunity for after education. There is no help for Tibetans to have good career and good work life and chances for growing. The government never help to produce any world-class Tibetans. If you can promote us to be successful in different area, then we will be more famous in the world and have more respect. Then if Tibetans talk about Tibetan cause, it will be more powerful and more people will listen to help us. But Tibetan government never help Tibetans to be successful. We cannot even travel so how we can achieve more bigger things?

Instead of trying to do more bigger things for your people, the CTA spend so much time talking about small, religion things. This issue about the Dorje Shugden, I am not interested in this. Most people in the world is not interested. Even my friends asking me why Tibetan government always talking about this things and put down people because of religion. I heard these people cannot get medicine help or education. It looks very behind and for Tibetans, it is embarrassing. There is not progression or democratic action. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is so big and famous and good but why on his website, there is these things on Dholgyal and Dorje Shugden? (dalailama.com/messages/dolgyal-shugden). This thing make Dalai Lama image go down. No big famous religion leader or nobel prize people putting things on their website talking bad about religion. This things makes Dalai Lama and Tibetans look like very not compassion and very small mind. Writing this thing does not look like give advice but make His Holiness look like suppressing religion freedom and religious practice. You must remove this section on Dalai Lama website please!

The Dalai Lama always say that everybody is welcome to go to his dharma talks. Anybody from every religion can go, except Dorje Shugden people. This is not fair. Why Dalai Lama have no compassion and love for Dorje Shugden people? If Dorje Shugden people so bad, Dalai Lama must accept them for his talk and help them to change to be good. If he don’t let them come in, how to help them? How can religious teachers stop anybody to join them for prayers and good religion talks? No religion leader today stop people to come and see them and help them. This kind of message make Dalai Lama look very small mind and not kind and have bias. We all know Dalai Lama is very kind and have a lot of love. But this things on website make him look opposite and make him look like bad although it is not true. The Dalai Lama is the doctor, dharma is medicine. Samsara people is all sick. Even Dorje Shugden people is sick and all need help like all of us. So why Dalai Lama don’t let them come to his talk to help them and give them healing? All people deserve to have this medicine and dharma. How can the Tibetan government support something like this? It makes Tibetans very old-fashioned. It is not modern and no democracy. There is no human rights and it will make the world have no more respect for Tibetan policy and ideas. Please do not mix up religion things and politics anymore.

Now it is so difficult for Tibetans. Later, when His Holiness Dalai Lama pass away, what will be the future for the rest of Tibetans? The rest of the world will respect us less when there is no more Dalai Lama. Until now, the Tibetan government did not create any respect for itself or its people. Without Dalai Lama, it will be even more difficult to make other people to listen to us.

Dr Lobsang Sangay, I really hope that you can improve condition for the Tibetan people. Many of us still having so many problems now because the government did not fight enough for Tibetans, always focus on small things and religion things instead of development. Now the world is getting smaller but Tibetan people still have so much trouble to be respected because we don’t have good opportunities for working life or for politics. Actually, it is very sad Tibetan government name already change to CTA. It shows that government reputation and name and honour already go down in the world. The CTA need to catch up to rest of the world and have progress. I hope very much you can achieve this progress.

I wish you many Tashi Deleks and I am sorry maybe my words hurt you. Also, I am sorry have to writing to you in English. My Tibetan writing is not so good, so I ask my friend to help me with writing this letter. I hope it is okay.

Lobsang Tashi

[WisdomBeing]

Hey, I saw this letter on facebook too, posted by Gaden Nyengyu. When i reposted it on my facebook, I received this comment from one of my Tibetan friends, "Very nice. The new kalon. He is in upper 40's. As far as I know, he can read and understand English pretty well. So, I hope he reads this letter. I am happy to see younger generation with more knowledge is finally recognizing in Tibetan community."

I fully agree with this sentiment!

[DSFriend]

Such a sincere letter from a Tibetan. I am not a tibetan but I am sure many Tibetans can relate to the points raised in this letter. The voice of the people is most powerful. I hope more will speak up, stand for their rights and  progress into the 21st century! 

[beggar]

An excellent perspective. it is refreshing to see an opinion like this coming directly from a Tibetan, though I imagine that it is probably difficult for Tibetans to speak up within their own community so he's being very brave for coming forward like this.

His points are very valid and strong though. It's correct! The tibetan government should stop focusing so much on these religious issues. Every other country in the world acknowledges the importance of separating church and state. Yes, the Tibetans hold their religion very strongly, but their entire focus on this is at the detriment of their own people - this defeats the whole purpose of religion which is to benefit others! It's true what this lobsang tashi says - it is very difficult for Tibetans to get around and get any level position with the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, who really respects the Tibetans? If not for the Dalai Lama, who really knows anything about the Tibetans? They have a lot to share with the world, but first they really need to stop nitpicking on small issues that backfire upon them. Setting up witchhunts, disparaging their own Lamas (one of their greatest "assets") and ostracising their own people all in the name of religion really makes them look stupid. It is totally against all human rights codes that the rest of the world abide by.

Unfortunately and ironically, their very use of religion to justify all their actions is what is making people lose respect for them as a people and as a religion. People will look upon them and think: "Is this how a Buddhist people and nation act?"

On the one hand, you hear about these Government witchhunts against DS practitioners - their own people who all come from the same lands as them! And on the other hand, you don't hear of Dorje Shugden practitioners retaliating against them or acting in violent aggressive ways. It's time the Tibetan government look to see what their actions are really causing - are their bans helping or destroying their own cause for their own people? If there's anything ruining the Tibetan cause, it's not Dorje Shugden. It's their own doing, making their entire country, policy and people look backward and stupid!

[DharmaSpace]

I think the best 'product' coming out of the Tibet are the lamas and the Buddhist traditions they have maintained since the time of Shakyamuni. And to persecute the Gelugpa lamas for worshipping dorje shugden it is like shooting themselves in the foot. The Lamas are world class definitely in the subject of spirituality, there is no doubt about.

For the previous government to focus on small issues about like Dorje Shugden gives a bad taste in the mouth. Putting up the dorje shugden ban on the Dalai Lama website is like the pope advertising the inquisition online.  if CTA had focused their time on educating their people and developing their own people instead of enforcing bans and threatening the lives for practitioners and lamas, I think the Tibetans would not be in such a dire situation now in India.

I hope the Kalon Tripa makes a brave step to end the ban serves no purpose, no benefit at all and ostracizes certain tibetans form their government. Yes Tibetan government is so old fashioned. 

[Big Uncle]

A lovely voice. Finally, a brave Tibetan voice to speak for the thousands that are unable to speak. I am not sure if the Kalon Tripa will respond or not as I feel that his hands and his mouth are bound by the many conservatives still holding power within the Kashag.

On top of that, his every move will determine the fate of an exiled nation that is increasingly losing political clout as its most favourite spokesperson, the Dalai Lama is waning in popularity. Whatever it is, I am sure something good will come from it. Perhaps more and more Tibetans will dare to speak up, especially the younger generation who have been brought up in democratic India. These voices will be crucial to help the Kalon Tripa to wield his secular power and be done with the medieval age of mixing secular and religious power.

[dsiluvu]

I think the best 'product' coming out of the Tibet are the lamas and the Buddhist traditions they have maintained since the time of Shakyamuni. And to persecute the Gelugpa lamas for worshipping dorje shugden it is like shooting themselves in the foot. The Lamas are world class definitely in the subject of spirituality, there is no doubt about.

For the previous government to focus on small issues about like Dorje Shugden gives a bad taste in the mouth. Putting up the dorje shugden ban on the Dalai Lama website is like the pope advertising the inquisition online.  if CTA had focused their time on educating their people and developing their own people instead of enforcing bans and threatening the lives for practitioners and lamas, I think the Tibetans would not be in such a dire situation now in India.

I hope the Kalon Tripa makes a brave step to end the ban serves no purpose, no benefit at all and ostracizes certain tibetans form their government. Yes Tibetan government is so old fashioned.

Ditto on these points!

What a refreshing letter from a Tibetan who can see a bigger picture for the future. Hopefully there will be more wiser Tibetans who will speak up for what is more important.

Governments all around the world do not dabble in to religious issues and for those who do, we always see suffering and war which brings pain and grief to those innocent citizen.
Leave the religious issues to the religious masters, the high lamas, abbots and teachers who have been doing it for centuries and preserving their own pure lineage.

[shugdenpromoter]

I think the best 'product' coming out of the Tibet are the lamas and the Buddhist traditions they have maintained since the time of Shakyamuni. And to persecute the Gelugpa lamas for worshipping dorje shugden it is like shooting themselves in the foot. The Lamas are world class definitely in the subject of spirituality, there is no doubt about.

For the previous government to focus on small issues about like Dorje Shugden gives a bad taste in the mouth. Putting up the dorje shugden ban on the Dalai Lama website is like the pope advertising the inquisition online.  if CTA had focused their time on educating their people and developing their own people instead of enforcing bans and threatening the lives for practitioners and lamas, I think the Tibetans would not be in such a dire situation now in India.

I hope the Kalon Tripa makes a brave step to end the ban serves no purpose, no benefit at all and ostracizes certain tibetans form their government. Yes Tibetan government is so old fashioned.

I can't agree more to the statement above. I know many tibetans, some belongs to the Sangha and some lay people. Their government or rather now just an administration (CTA) are busy focusing on issue such as DS or Free Tibet protest that they actually allow their people to suffer. I am aware of quite a lot of tibetans in India who holds refugee passport and it is extremely DIFFICULT for them to go to any countries outside INDIA. CTA should do something about that instead.

At this moment, in the eyes of others, it seems that CTA is just promoting HH but not going out to promote the other lamas which are the assets after HH enters clear light. Even in any multinational companies who wants to promote their products, they have 5 yrs plans, strategies, advertising campaigns and etc. The success of the product does not come overnight but overtime with consistent effort. You do not see CTA doing that for other high lamas. It will be a shame cause, it will reach a point that CTA will find it too late. And they will loose their biggest treasure.

[kris]

I find the letter is very neutral, and yet stating the facts. The government has just spent WAY TOO MUCH resources onto other stuffs than nurturing their people, especially the education.

Well, it has been almost one and half year since Lobsang Sangay was elected the Kalon Tripa, but sadly to say, he has not done much. I don't feel that there are any drastic changes to strategy in the "country". Or may be HH Dalai Lama is just too strong a figure that Lobsang Sangay still need to ask permission from HHDL for every single matter?

I had defended Lobsang Sangay before, but after 16 months, I am sad to say he didn't bring a energy to the "country", and everything is just the same old, and HH Dalai Lama is still "running the show".

[Ensapa]

I think the best 'product' coming out of the Tibet are the lamas and the Buddhist traditions they have maintained since the time of Shakyamuni. And to persecute the Gelugpa lamas for worshipping dorje shugden it is like shooting themselves in the foot. The Lamas are world class definitely in the subject of spirituality, there is no doubt about.
That's the only thing that Tibet has to offer the world, yet they choose to screw it up by making a political mess out of it. The Dalai Lama has made it clear its a choice as opposed to a commandment like what some of his zealots proclaim. I love the Dalai Lama, but not his zealots which can be the tibetans or westerners who just want to get on the good side of the Dalai Lama.

For the previous government to focus on small issues about like Dorje Shugden gives a bad taste in the mouth. Putting up the dorje shugden ban on the Dalai Lama website is like the pope advertising the inquisition online.  if CTA had focused their time on educating their people and developing their own people instead of enforcing bans and threatening the lives for practitioners and lamas, I think the Tibetans would not be in such a dire situation now in India.
This issue is beyond small. It is a stupid thing to do and it advocates nothing but bewilderment. Never mind the broken and twisted facts about Dorje Shugden on the website, there are also several spelling mistakes on the articles, never mind the grammatical ones. Chunky Rolpai Dorje...seriously? how could anyone have missed that one? Was that intentional?

On the other, we put Purchog Ngawang Jampa, Trichen Ngawang Chogdhen, Chunky Rolpai Dorje, and Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen. Then we weigh them up ...

[/color]

I hope the Kalon Tripa makes a brave step to end the ban serves no purpose, no benefit at all and ostracizes certain tibetans form their government. Yes Tibetan government is so old fashioned.
I doubt he would. He cannot even make a proper statement about the self immolations. What makes you think he can about the Dorje Shugden ban?

Like what they did to the rest of the "feedback" to the Dalai Lama and to the CTA, this letter would have been ignored even though the letter would really make them wake up and rethink on the direction that they are going towards and what are they doing and the fact that it is actually taking it further and further away from their goal - Tibetan independence.

[Big Uncle]

Too bad, nothing much came from this letter. However, I must applaud whoever it is that wrote the letter. It brought considerable attention to the possibility of change with a lay Kalon Tripa taking over and the retirement of the Dalai Lama as well brought a lot of promise. However, it seems that his Harvard education and the promise that millions of Tibetans especially of Dorje Shugden practitioners was wasted.

He's been office long enough and from the looks of it, he's not radical enough to push the fold and start something different. This is really sad. I would think that the chance for Tibet to gain independence is slowly drifting away. I believe once the Dalai Lama is no longer with us, the chance will be closed forever.They may not be Tibet but Dorje Shugden still exists and I do hope that whatever leadership that the Tibetans fall under, it will be one that respects the freedom of religion like any other modern and sovereign state in the world today.

[dsiluvu]

Well said and so much more logic then the reasons the CTA cook up for the Ban on Dorje Shugden which is completely something they should not even talk about or put on their website. Exactly as Lobsang Tashi mentioned.... and yeah where have we ever come across any Nobel Peace Prize winner talking negatively or putting down the faith and belief of others. Even if it is Satanic... you will not hear them saying it let alone advertise it for the world to see on their official website. This is so unskillful and degrading the status of a Peace Maker like HHDL.

I truly hope this letter gets circulated around the world because it speaks the truth and is quite straight forward! So unless the PM has suddenly changed his mind from being a democratic leader... I think He should address the bigger issues and well... there should really not be any BAN in any religion... it is a huge taboo subject and unheard of in any democratic system!

[Ensapa]

One thing that perhaps have emerged from this letter is that more and more people are made to think and re-question the like that CTA tells the world that Tibetans are happy under their rule. CTA has long lied to the world that the Tibetans will only be happy under their rule and that they are the most perfect government in the world because they are Buddhist. this is not true and to preserve this image CTA had created a lot of lies to sustain it and played the pity game to gain the sympathy of the public to distract people of their mistakes and their shortcomings. This is falling apart very soon as China will continue to dig deeper into their past and their weaknesses. If I were CTA, I would not provoke China anymore as they can easily reveal all the lies and all the things that CTA has been desperately trying to cover up and failing badly in it.

perhaps, this letter would wake people up from the lies that CTA is perpetuating. There are unhappy tibetans in Dharamsala, and there are people suffering under the rule of the CTA. This letter is evidence of that.

[vajratruth]

What the CTA must realize by now is that the Dorje Shugden ban they are enforcing has backfired and people are no longer buying the story of Dorje Shugden being the reason Tibet has not regained its independence. The reason the Tibetan Cause has not achieved much is because the CTA is incompetent and has thoroughly failed to protect and further the interest of Tibetans.

The author of the letter wrote:

"Dr Lobsang Sangay, I really hope that you can improve condition for the Tibetan people. Many of us still having so many problems now because the government did not fight enough for Tibetans, always focus on small things and religion things instead of development. Now the world is getting smaller but Tibetan people still have so much trouble to be respected because we don’t have good opportunities for working life or for politics. Actually, it is very sad Tibetan government name already change to CTA. It shows that government reputation and name and honour already go down in the world. The CTA need to catch up to rest of the world and have progress. I hope very much you can achieve this progress".

The decline in the reputation of the CTA is in large part due to the sheer contradictions between the actions and policies they exercise, and what the CTA says and profess to uphold. Their oppressive treatment of Shugden practitioners is in direct conflict with their own Constitution.  How can anyone take the CTA seriously when they cannot even be honest to themselves?

In recent interviews, the Kalon Tripa still insisted that China is treating the Tibetans badly but at the same time, all over the world, news agencies report improvement in the economic and social conditions of Tibetans under Chinese rule. In the meantime, Tibetans are still facing serious problems in exile. One government is doing all it can to win the hearts of the Tibetans and it is not the CTA.

It is not Dorje Shugden that has done any harm to Tibet and its people. On the contrary it is the ban that has brought create massive problems for Tibetans. The Shugden ban is no doubt the single most idiotic thing the CTA has done to damage Tibetan society and to the CTA's own credibility.

[Ensapa]

What the CTA must realize by now is that the Dorje Shugden ban they are enforcing has backfired and people are no longer buying the story of Dorje Shugden being the reason Tibet has not regained its independence. The reason the Tibetan Cause has not achieved much is because the CTA is incompetent and has thoroughly failed to protect and further the interest of Tibetans.
CTA should also know now that the ban is not just not contributing to the independence, but also creating causes for them to go down even more and at a faster rate. Even Tibetans themselves dont wanna stay in Dharamsala now!

The author of the letter wrote:

"Dr Lobsang Sangay, I really hope that you can improve condition for the Tibetan people. Many of us still having so many problems now because the government did not fight enough for Tibetans, always focus on small things and religion things instead of development. Now the world is getting smaller but Tibetan people still have so much trouble to be respected because we don’t have good opportunities for working life or for politics. Actually, it is very sad Tibetan government name already change to CTA. It shows that government reputation and name and honour already go down in the world. The CTA need to catch up to rest of the world and have progress. I hope very much you can achieve this progress".

The decline in the reputation of the CTA is in large part due to the sheer contradictions between the actions and policies they exercise, and what the CTA says and profess to uphold. Their oppressive treatment of Shugden practitioners is in direct conflict with their own Constitution.  How can anyone take the CTA seriously when they cannot even be honest to themselves?
Deceptive and sneaky, they still wonder why China refuse to enter talks with them when China is already well aware that they were the ones who started the self immolations. They tell the world that they are democratic, but prevents Dorje Shugden practitioners from practicing peacefully. What democracy is this? a fake one? sounds fake to me!

In recent interviews, the Kalon Tripa still insisted that China is treating the Tibetans badly but at the same time, all over the world, news agencies report improvement in the economic and social conditions of Tibetans under Chinese rule. In the meantime, Tibetans are still facing serious problems in exile. One government is doing all it can to win the hearts of the Tibetans and it is not the CTA.
Perhaps he has forgotten about reports of how China has been rebuilding temples in Tibet and how they allow the building of huge Dorje Shugden temples....oh wait. They only disallow the worship of the Dalai Lama only. What's the big deal over that?

It is not Dorje Shugden that has done any harm to Tibet and its people. On the contrary it is the ban that has brought create massive problems for Tibetans. The Shugden ban is no doubt the single most idiotic thing the CTA has done to damage Tibetan society and to the CTA's own credibility.
The ban is causing CTA to look really bad, if they have not noticed yet as there are many in the world who have seen how much damage and suffering this ban thing has caused and how much problems it has caused the Buddhist community. So much misinformation and so many people hurt as a result of their actions. It has changed the way Buddhists think forever, especially about Tibetan Buddhism.

The ban is the one that caused harm..not Dorje Shugden. People upholding the ban have caused a lot of damage to the minds of so many Buddhists out there that it is almost impossible to believe that this ban is beneficial in any way...